A CIT-based Research For The Images In The Poetry Of Boudoir Repining

The conceptual integration theory (CIT), proposed by Fauconnier and Turner,attracts some scholars’ attention abroad and at home because the theory has completeframe structure and flexible operation mechanism. The conceptual integration processis composed of four mental spaces, the different interrelationship among which canclassify the integration process into different kinds of conceptual integration networkmodels. In these networks, the elements in the input spaces are selectively projectedto the blended space and the emergent structure is created eventually through theoperations of composition, completion and elaboration. The CIT serves as a new andpowerful theory for interpreting some linguistic phenomena, thus it is widely appliedin the field of advertisement, poetry, drama, news, movie and narrative prose.The image is the soul of the poetry, which is the objective thing infused withhuman’s subjective feelings. The images，as one of main literature forms, alwaysconvey poetic subjective feelings to readers vividly. The poetry of boudoir repining inthe Tang Dynasty is such a special kind of ancient poetry that the rich impliedmeaning is sometimes expressed through images. Numerous scholars have madesome researches on the poetry of boudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty from theperspective of sociology, aesthetics, translatology, and rhetoric. However, the majorityof researches just relate to the non-linguistic field.This thesis applies the CIT to analyzing the meaning construction of images suchas lotus, water, moon and willow in the poetry of boudoir repining in the TangDynasty. Different kinds of conceptual integration networks are set up throughcomposition, completion and elaboration to illustrate the dynamic cognitiveintegration process of meaning construction of images.We find that the readers’ online cognition towards images in the poetry ofboudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty is an unconscious and dynamic conceptual integration process. The conceptual integration networks are various due to thedifferent blending ways among four mental spaces. As we know, readers have theirown individual experience and background knowledge, so the organization ofconceptual integration network alters according to the cognitive body instead of beingconstant. To sum up, all kinds of conceptual integration network have explanatorypower for comprehending the images in the poetry of boudoir repining in the TangDynasty.This thesis mentions that the poetry of boudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty is aliterature form with parataxis language, so readers can hardly understand the profoundmeaning of images just from words. Only when the images are mapping to thereaders’ background knowledge can the cognitive body recognize the dynamiccognitive process of their meaning construction. Different valuations towards imagesin the poetry of boudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty will arise from different studyperspectives.This thesis attempts to approach the meaning construction process of images inthe poetry of boudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty from the conceptual integrationtheory, which further certificates the fact that the CIT, as a foreign linguistic theory,also has cognitive explanatory power for ancient Chinese literature. Therefore, thisthesis proposes that the application of CIT in the poetry of boudoir repining in theTang Dynasty can provide not only a new method for the interpretation of ancientChinese literature, but also a new angle for the translation and teaching of the poetryof boudoir repining in the Tang Dynasty.